For those out there who can’t get enough do it yourself–or just can’t get enough of watching other people do it themselves–we’ve got a real treat for you today. Our friends out at the History Channel sent over a copy of American Restoration Volume Two for us to review, and this one is going to capture some imaginations.

American Restoration Volume Two gives us fully seventeen episodes of one of the best do it yourself shows out there. The series follows Rick Dale and the rest of the crew at Rick’s Restoration, a Las Vegas company that takes stuff–all manner of stuff, too, it’s quite literally the best description–and brings it back to its original life and condition. At least, as close to it as they can get. Rick and company will find themselves facing down some serious challenges, both within and without, as the business looks to grow and Rick looks to take things as far as he can.

Basically, what you have here is a show that’s two shows at once. American Restoration is both a story about the business itself, and the things that it goes through–profit and loss, issues with employees, issues of succession and so on–but also about the things that come into the business. Rick and his crew will face a number of unusual devices from a wide variety of subgenres. There will be entertainment devices, advertising memorabilia, much larger full machines, and just about anything else in between. Thus, half the fun is not only seeing how Rick runs his business, but also seeing what comes into that business. They’ll even provide a nice little reveal for the customer and a side-by-side comparison of how the device looked when it came in and when it went back out. Do you have any idea what a “pickle bath” is? You’ll find out here, and it’s got nothing to do with kosher dill.

American Restoration Volume Two is packed with a lot of exciting points, and, indeed, there’s also a bunch of great history involved in this. Stuff from the fifties, the thirties…all sorts of different things will show up. Admittedly, it does tend to repeat itself a bit–after all, they’re never not going to fix something–but at the same time, they’re always going to fix something different. The differences may be a bit on the fine side sometimes–one kiddie toy looks a lot like another–but it’s still going to be a treat to see these things all come out. It’s also a solid value, especially for those who love the series as these episodes have never seen DVD before now.

American Restoration Volume Two is going to be a real winner for the folks who love history, and who love to see history get a whole new shot at life.